“She is healthy and still in good spirits. Her activities are restricted now and she is under heavy surveillance,” said a source close to Huang who wished to remain anonymous. “But police are keeping her passport, computer and mobile phone.”

In a message sent to friends after her release, Huang wrote that it would not be convenient for her to meet with them now.

“One second of darkness does not make people blind,” she wrote.

Huang became a leading figure in the Chinese #MeToo movement in recent years. In 2017, the former state media journalist conducted a pioneering nationwide survey of workplace harassment in the news industry and was a vocal advocate for victims.

[…] In the months leading to her arrest, Huang had published two essays reporting her observations of the summer protests in Hong Kong. She was about to start a law degree at Hong Kong University when her passport was confiscated in August by mainland authorities, preventing her from leaving the mainland. [Source]

Human rights experts welcomed Ms. Huang’s release, though they cautioned that the governing Communist Party’s campaign to silence voices of dissent was still in full force.

“That she was detained at all is an indictment of Beijing’s hostility toward independent activism and journalism,” said Sophie Richardson, China director for Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group.

[…] Mr. Xi’s efforts to limit dissent have continued to send waves of anxiety through China’s community of activists. Last month, as part of a nationwide crackdown, the authorities detained several prominent rights lawyers who attended a planning meeting in the eastern city of Xiamen. [Read more via CDT.]